Hit by an unexpected controversy after the high of the Test triumph, India will look to fine tune its World Cup preparations in the three-match One-Day International series against Australia, beginning here on Saturday.
On the eve of the opening game, the BCCI suspended Hardik Pandya and K.L. Rahul pending an inquiry for their unsavoury remarks on women during a TV show, effectively ruling them out of the series.
While Pandya was a certainty in the playing XI, an out-of-form Rahul was not in contention for Saturday.
‘Individual opinion’
Skipper Virat Kohli, on Friday, condemned the comments made by his teammates and said the team did not align with the “individual opinions”.
“The two concerned players (have) felt what has gone wrong and they have understood the magnitude of what’s happened,” he said in the pre-match press conference.
Pandya’s absence means that India will have to rejig its attack. Jasprit Bumrah has already been rested for this series, as well as the tour of New Zealand, and this allows the think-tank to conduct one final experiment with the bowling attack.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a shoo-in, and thereafter it depends whether Kohli wants to go in with a three-man pace attack.
Indian fielders walk from the pitch after their field session ahead of the first ODI against Australia in Sydney on January 11, 2019.
Kohli also stated that, in Pandya’s absence, Ravindra Jadeja would step up as the all-rounder. He would partner left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav as India’s five-pronged attack, with Kedar Jadhav fulfilling part-time bowling duties if needed.
Australia has named its playing eleven ahead of the first ODI, with Nathan Lyon featuring as the lone spinner and Peter Siddle returning to this format for the first time since 2010.
Teams:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
Australia (playing XI): Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (wk), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff.
Match starts 7.50 am IST.
